I’ve wanted to talk on this topic for some time now but I just couldn’t get it together. Those of you who were at the student= s Mass will hear some of it echoed here because its been on my mind ever since the Pope came out with the encyclical on God is Love. I’ve been reflecting on how we understand God is love. What= s popping into my mind is something like this.

God is proactive in our daily circumstances. He’s already anticipating to do us good today and every day of our life. Things that really confirm me in this insight is, first of all, the church= s teaching that God loved us first. That doesn’t mean in a past event he did something, it= s means he= s always loving us first. Then secondly, I was surprised by the text from Sunday= s first reading because here= s the last chapter in Isaiah the prophet and we all know that the school of prophets were involved in writing the book and so it is the proclamation of faith of the community that began to realize that God is trying to draw all nations into the kingdom. That= s what he= s doing. If you ask a good Jew who wrote that book he would say, A this is what God= s doing he’s trying to draw all nations into the Kingdom.@ Then, of course, the gospel confirms it. Jesus says we will be invited into God= s kingdom and eat at his banquet.

So the first real issue is then this is the way God really is. This is what he= s doing. Not just the whole world but each of us, moving us into the kingdom and in our concrete circumstances of life he is anticipating to move us into the kingdom. So what= s the response? Well, the first response is you’ve got to believe it. To believe that God is trying to fill us with himself, has been doing it, and intends to stay the course until it= s done. So what kind of faith is this? This is a little different then you have to reflect on how you look at your faith. A lot of times our faith is mixed with feeling and a certain amount of experience. We are more willing to accept a truth of faith if we’ve had some experience of it but this requires that we simply accept it on the Word of God because we don= t feel and we don= t see how this particular little circumstance moves me into the kingdom. Once in a while we have a real sense of God= s presence, I do and I= m sure you do too. Sometimes when we pray together, especially at Mass, I really sense the presence of God. But I don= t make the specific connection between that and how God is promoting my entrance into the kingdom.

So this is a purification of our faith. It’s a real effort on our part to live the Word of God based on God= s Word. But God= s Word is eternal and it= s real. So this is what puts us in touch with what= s real. It’s embracing this Word of God.

We see this in the life of St. John of the Cross. He took out some time in one of the monasteries in the desert and a parishioner asked him, "Well, how are things going?" He said, "Well, everything’s fine except my soul is miserable. I’m going through a desert." Well he knew that God was doing something so he embraced it, he didn’t feel good about it, he couldn’t make sense of it, but he trusted. So this is a real act of trust to believe that in my present circumstances, my present daily life, in these situations, God is moving me to the Kingdom. It’s a tremendous act of trust.

So the issue I think is important because if we don= t do this the danger is not just that we will go astray, we will try to find happiness in something else, but we will stop trusting. We won= t give our full "yes" to every day. And, therefore, you can stay in the monastery, you can pray office, you can do all these things but you are really not giving your full "yes" to God. So the important thing here is to really realize this truth that you are a factor in God= s daily life. Each of us, all of us. That’s the implications of the encyclical that the Pope put before us. Because God= s love is infinite and therefore his generosity far exceeds anything we can comprehend.

Let me give you another example so that you can see where I= m coming from. Jesus says in John= s gospel that if we love him the Father and he will come and make their home in us. Do you ever feel that? Do you ever really grasp it intellectually? Once in a while you can have a sense of God= s nearness but really to have that sense, I don= t think so. So you accept it purely on the Word of God and that= s a tremendous trust and it= s truth - God is working! When he comes to us in the Eucharist, for instance, he is moving to make us his home.

John of the Cross is interesting because when people come to him for advice and they get to this point of saying, "Well, what about this and that?" He simply repeats the truth, ‘You have to believe that God is doing nothing else but trying to fill you with himself." So what kind of faith is this? This is resurrection faith. Remember what Jesus told Thomas, Blessed are they who have not seen but yet believe. The positive side St. Peter= s epistle, you love him even though you don= t see him.

So we have to pray. What do we pray for? We pray that God would awaken us, shed his light on us, so that we would see the blessings of our day. And recognize those blessings and embrace them because those blessings are anticipated to bring us into the Kingdom. That doesn't mean something nice all the time. God knows what we need to move further, we don= t. So St. John could also pray, Lord deliver me from myself, from what I want and what I think is good for me. And grant me what you want and what pleases you to give me and grant it to me at the time you want to give it because that= s the best time for it. So we pray that the Lord will show us what in our daily life is a manifestation of his blessing to us and embrace it. So what happens when that happens? We begin to realize that God is in our life. He does not abandon us, he has not forgotten us.

There are many examples of people which I= m sure you yourself have experienced that only God could have done this in your life. At that moment you knew God was in your life. But that= s the way God wants to be all the time because he’s the one that is moving us to the Kingdom.